Pic of the Day 03.20.09

While having a cigarette outside my office on Monday, I noticed this humbling vigil across the street. After reading the note, left by an anonymous New Yorker, I went through my mental microfiche trying to the recall the incident. I couldn't. Realizing that I was in Chicago for my last semester of college at the time, I sought out some of my tenured co-workers to see if they could explain what happened.

According to several accounts, auxiliary cops Eugene Marshalik and Nicholas Pekearo made the ultimate sacrifice in 2007 when gunman David Garvin, shortly after killing pizza shop employee Alfredo Romero, opened fire on the unarmed officers at Sullivan and Bleecker streets. Garvin, a Marine veteran who regularly ate spaghetti at the pizza shop, walked in and blasted Romero as the auxiliary officers were close by. As Garvin fled the shop, a witness found the two volunteers and explained what had just happened. Armed with nothing more than their wits, the two heroes chased after Garvin. Realizing that they didn't have guns, Garvin rushed back at them and unloaded.

A surveillance camera captured the fatal shootings (video below). With Pekearo ducked behind a car, Garvin crosses the street and shoots him from a few feet away...then he goes back to the street to shoot Marshalik in the head at close range. Shortly thereafter, police called to the scene killed Garvin -- there were 30 wounds on his body, though it's unclear how many times he was shot. The police fired at least 50 rounds at him. At the time, Garvin had some 135 rounds of ammunition on him and it's widely believed that he was commencing a mad rampage.

Normally, I use this blog to chastise the police and their often shady and deplorable tactics, but not today. Today is for two heroes who epitomize everything we should want in a police officer -- selfless bravery. Yes, these men gave their lives, but they saved countless others -- their loss was not in vain.

This past Saturday, on the two year anniversary of their courageous demise, the streets where they were shot were renamed after them. Now, Marshalik's name is on the southwest corner of Bleecker St. and Sullivan St., and Pekearo's is on the northeast corner. Remember them the next time you walk by.